Super Mario Bros. Crossover
Super Mario Bros. Crossover is a fan-made crossover platform Flash video game launched on Newgrounds on April 27, 2013 by Exploding Rabbit. It is based mostly on the gameplay of Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. for the NES. The only major difference is the ability to control characters that debuted in other Nintendo Entertainment System games unrelated to the Mario series, plus the ability to use "skins" of levels and characters from other games and platforms. The latest version available (3.1.21) was released on December 27, 2013. Gameplay Super Mario Bros. Crossover is a Flash browser-based platforming game. The game's levels and graphics are all primarily duplicates of those found in Super Mario Bros.; each of the game's eight worlds feature four levels. In three of the levels, the goal is to reach a checkpoint to complete the level, while the final level has the player facing against Bowser in hopes of rescuing Princess Peach. Enemies such as Goombas, Koopa Troopas and Hammer Bros. will block the player's attempt to make it successfully through the level. As Mario and Luigi, the player can jump on enemies to kill them, use Koopa shells to knock enemies over, and acquire powerups from special blocks that serve to boost health, shoot fireballs, or remain invincible for a short period of time. Besides completing the level, the player can also earn coins and points, attempting to achieve a high score. Super Mario Bros. Crossover varies this formula by adding in several additional main characters in addition to Mario that the player can play. In the same manner as with Super Mario Bros. 2, the player selects one of the additional characters at the start of each level. Each character, based on other classic Nintendo Entertainment System games, uses different attacks and movements that are related to their original game, as well as their own signature music. In the version 2.0 update, character skins were a new and unique feature that allowed all characters to look different and have new music along with them. Some skins are the same character but from a different game in their respective franchise, while others are from completely different franchises. The 3.0 update added additional character skins, special rendering modes to mimic other earlier computer gaming hardware, and levels inspired by the limited-release Super Mario Bros. Special. ''Mega Man'' Both Mega Man and Bass are playable characters, retaining most of their abilities and traits. Both may also obtain Special Weapons from the various ? Blocks in the levels, with one Special Weapon representing each of the classic Mega Man games except for Mega Man 7, 8, and 9, as well as the Energy Balancer. These weapons includes the Super Arm, Metal Blade, Hard Knuckle, Pharaoh Shot, Charge Kick, Flame Blast and Water Shield. As of Version 3.0, Bass can no longer obtain the Metal Blades, but gets Screw Crusher instead. Skins The game also features an extensive skinning system, allowing the player to change the appearance of the levels, enemies and even the player character to resemble others. Some of the player skins have minor changes, such as Ice Man being able to freeze enemies with the charged shot and Quick Man being faster and able to jump higher than Bass, but losing the dash and double jump maneuvers. Mega Man *Mega Man (8-bit) *Mega Man (16-bit) *Mega Man (GB, but based on his Rockman: Battle & Fighters appearance) *Mega Man (Sharp X1, based on the Super Mario Bros. Special palette) *Mega Man (Atari) *Mega Man (helmetless, 8-bit) *Mega Man (helmetless, 16-bit) *Mega Man (helmetless, GB) *Rock (8-bit) *Rock (16-bit) *Proto Man (8-bit) *Proto Man (16-bit) *Proto Man (GB, but based on his Rockman: Battle & Fighters appearance) *Break Man (8-bit) *Break Man (16-bit) *Break Man (GB, but based on his Rockman: Battle & Fighters appearance) *Dr. Light *Roll *Cut Man *Ice Man *Rokko Chan Bass *Bass (8-bit) *Bass (16-bit) *Bass (GB, but based on his Rockman: Battle & Fighters appearance) *Bass (Sharp X1, based on the Super Mario Bros. Special palette) *Bass (Atari) *Dr. Wily (8-bit) *Dr. Wily (16-bit) *Mr. X (8-bit) *Mr. X (16-bit) *Dr. Cossack (8-bit) *Dr. Cossack (16-bit) *Quick Man (8-bit) *Quick Man (16-bit) *Gemini Man (8-bit) *Gemini Man (16-bit) *Skull Man (8-bit only) Development The game was created by Jay Pavlina. Further development is done by Zach Robinson, Mathew Valente, et al. Music was emulated with Blargg's Game Music Emu. It took 15 months to create. It was written using Action Script 3, and made in Adobe Flash CS5.6 The game was instantly very popular on Newgrounds where it was first posted. After its first six hours online the game had 12,000 views and had won two awards. His next update, version 1.2, released on December 15, 2010, included Sophia the 3rd as a playable character, as well as some minor bugfixes. Versions 1.0 and 1.1 were called Super Mario Crossover. Version 2.0, released on February 9, 2012, added Luigi and Bass as playable characters. The update will also allow the user to switch between various graphical looks resembling other games from the Super Mario Bros. series, including Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins and Super Mario Bros. 3. On March 29, 2012, Zach Robinson made a poll deciding which game between Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels and Super Mario Bros. Special will end up being in a future update. While Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels received more votes, Jay Pavlina showed more interest in Special, which was slated for inclusion in Version 3.0. He later released The Lost Levels in version 3.1, slated as the last major release. An Atari-style version of Super Mario Bros. Crossover was also created as an April Fools' joke, but the graphics and music have since been incorporated into Version 3.0. In November 2014, all non Exploding Rabbit related topics on the Exploding Rabbit fourms were moved to "New Game Plus" at www.new-game-plus.com, a new site that was not owned by Pavlina. New Game Plus lasted for three years until it closed down in November 2017 due to lack of funds to keep the server up. ''Super Retro Squad / Super Action Squad'' In June 2012, Exploding Rabbit started a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for Super Retro Squad, a game inspired by Crossover. As all of the elements in Crossover are copyrighted, Lead developer Jay Pavlina recognized he would not be able to make any profit on his time spent for that game, thus Super Retro Squad would feature original characters, art, and gameplay inspired by the characters and games from Crossover, and would be a commercial endeavour. The Kickstarter surpassed its initial $10,000 request, raising $53,509, and additional features were promised for having surpassed the goal. Unlike Crossover, Super Retro Squad was being made by a team of 6 members hand-picked by Jay. Development on Super Retro Squad began on October 1, 2012 under the Unity game engine. The project went under many changes including visuals and game mechanics. On September 2013 it was renamed as Super Action Squad. Its development was indefinitely suspended. ''Glitch Strikers'' In February 2017, Exploding Rabbit announced that "Super Action Squad" was renamed to "Glitch Strikers", and development on the game resumed since. It was released on Steam as part of its Greenlight service, and was approved for release. Glitch Strikers will contain level packs, in which each pack pertains to a certain character's environment/game, starting with "Hyper Manni Pals", a parody of Super Mario Bros. From there, all other level packs will be available as downloadable content on the Steam platform. Reception Super Mario Bros. Crossover has received positive attention from gaming journalists. Wired's Chris Kohler considered the game a "surprisingly thoughtful 8-bit mashup" and praised Pavlina's efforts for "how these six disparate characters all feel like they were ripped from their own classic NES titles, but fit in perfectly to the Mario levels". Margaret Lyons from Entertainment Weekly called the combination of characters with the Mario universe "a mindfrak for the ages". Dan Ryckert of Game Informer appreciated the attention to detail, from both the original levels of Super Mario Bros., and the music and sound effects from the other games, that were present in the game. Trivia *Quick Man is the only Robot Master from Mega Man 2 that didn't have a background music. *Dust Man is the only Robot Master in the main series that has a castle background music. *''Mega Man II, ''Mega Man 8 and Mega Man Powered Up didn't have a character with background music. References External links *Official website *Wikipedia article *Wiki Category:Fan games Category:Flash games Category:Super Mario Bros. Crossover